The Troy Area Labor Council has submitted a resolution to the AFL-CIO September Convention, calling for the AFL-CIO to endorse HR 676, and to lobby against  “any fallback program of mandated insurance or public option plans which include the wasteful for-profit insurance industry.”

The Troy Council’s resolution also asks that  “the AFL-CIO help organize and financially support a ‘Healthcare is a Human Right’ Solidarity March
and Rally in Washington, DC.”

The upstate New York labor council has sent copies of its resolution to all 491 Central labor Councils and Area labor federations requesting  “that your Labor Council join with us in submitting this or a similar resolution to this year’s AFL-CIO Convention.”

In the letter, sent to all 491Labor Councils, Mike Keenan, President of the Troy Council, said: “While the discussion of health care reform goes
on in the White House and in the Congress, unfortunately, what we are hearing from the media are mostly the voices of the insurance industry and pharmaceutical lobbies; and misguided politicians who think that the healthcare crisis can be solved by either taxing healthcare benefits or
mandating that we purchase health insurance.”

The AFL-CIO Convention will meet September 14-17th in Pittsburgh, PA.  Labor Councils are entitled to vote in the convention.   One hundred and twenty-seven Labor Councils have endorsed HR 676, single payer healthcare legislation introduced by Congressman John Conyers (D-MI) and 75 co-sponsors.

The Troy Council’s letter  is at:    http://www.pefencon.info/HR676/TALC_Cover_Letter.pdf

The Troy resolution is at:    http://www.pefencon.info/HR676/Resolution.htm

AMBRIDGE AREA for CHANGE

PRESENTS A FREE SHOWING OF

MICHAEL MOORE’S FILM

ABOUT THE U.S. HEALTH CARE CRISIS

AND WHY 46 MILLION OF US GO WITHOUT

Monday, May 11, 2009

6:30 PM

Center For Hope

233 Merchant Street, Ambridge

For More Information Call 724-251-0994 or 724-882-3100

David Himmelstein is an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and co-founder of Physicians for a National Health Program. The author of numerous studies and books, he is a leader in the movement for universal health care.

AARP: H.R. 676 does not address the problem of increasing healthcare costs. Rather, it allows costs to continue to grow. By 2016, projections show total health spending almost doubling to $4.1 trillion and consuming one-fifth of the nation’s gross domestic product. Possible efforts to control costs include: “comparative effectiveness” research, a generic pathway for biologic drugs, and increased attention to prevention and care coordination, none of which are included in H.R. 676.

Dr. David Himmelstein: There is absolutely no evidence that the AARP’s favored cost control mechanisms work. The CBO has refused to credit significant savings from care coordination, or prevention. The recently published Medicare Demonstration project of care coordination found no savings. A New England Journal of Medicine review of prevention found that most prevention efforts result in increased costs, not decreased.

Comparative effectiveness research is worthwhile – as are prevention and care coordination – if done right – but is unlikely to significantly cut costs.

Continue reading Dr. David Himmelstein Corrects AARP About HR 676 – Improved Medicare for All →

Ambridge Borough Council recently passed a resolution endorsing single payer healthcare and calling on Congress to enact HR 676. A copy of the resolution is to be forwarded to all Pennsylvania representatives in the US Congress.

Please click on the ‘Ambridge Borough HR676 Resolution’ tab at the top of the website to read the resolution.

Portland, Oregon. The 4,000 member IBEW Local 48 has voted to endorse HR 676, single payer healthcare legislation introduced by Congressman John Conyers (D-MI).

Dana Welty, Oregon Nurses Association, and Tom Leedham, IBT Local 206, made a joint presentation on HR 676 to the February membership meeting but the endorsement of HR 676 was tabled until the next meeting so that members could familiarize themselves more on the issue, reports Ray Kenny, a member of IBEW Local 48.

Kenny led a group of activists in the local who then worked the phones, leafleted the bigger job sites and distributed single payer buttons. Their work paid off with the overwhelming endorsement of HR 676 at the following membership meeting.

Kenny said: “Our members were outraged that Senator Wyden’s plan would not only keep insurance companies in the mix, but would actually tax the value of the negotiated coverage we have now.”

The Quiet Coup

by Simon Johnson

The crash has laid bare many unpleasant truths about the United States. One of the most alarming, says a former chief economist of the International Monetary Fund, is that the finance industry has effectively captured our government—a state of affairs that more typically describes emerging markets, and is at the center of many emerging-market crises. If the IMF’s staff could speak freely about the U.S., it would tell us what it tells all countries in this situation: recovery will fail unless we break the financial oligarchy that is blocking essential reform. And if we are to prevent a true depression, we’re running out of time.

To read the whole story paste this link in your browser: http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200905/imf-advice

Two more local unions in Oregon have endorsed HR 676, single payer healthcare legislation introduced by Congressman John Conyers (D-MI).

In McMinnville, Steelworkers Local 8378 endorsed HR 676 and submitted its resolution to the Marion, Polk and Yamhill Counties Central Labor Council for consideration, reports Joseph Munger, President of the USW Local.

In Portland, Communications Workers of America Local 7901 also endorsed the Conyers bill. Mark Sturbois, a member of the 1,000 member CWA local as well as the Health Care Committee of Portland JwJ, reports that the endorsement resolution was passed out of the Local’s Executive Board with a recommendation to endorse. Sturbois stated that the resolution for HR 676 was “well received as the best avenue for controlling costs and providing universal coverage. We voted last year to endorse the resolution at the AFL-CIO convention in Oregon and thought it was important to back that up with our own endorsement,” Sturbois said.

Join the grassroots movement for national healthcare. Call Cong. Jason Altmire on May 13th. See the action information linked below.

Medicare For All Lobby Campaign Leaflet

Both Houses of the Maine state legislature, on roll call votes, have endorsed a single payer healthcare system and HR 676.

Separately, a just released poll conducted by the Maine Medical Society, shows that a majority of the state’s physicians support a single payer
healthcare system.

The HR 676 resolution and vote in Maine, follows a similar roll call vote by the New Hampshire House.  The New Hampshire House voted 192-150 on March 24th In favor of Resolution HCR2 which endorses HR 676 and a single payer health care system.

Below is the Associated Press story that ran in many Maine newspapers which also cites the recent poll conducted by the Maine Medical Society.

A copy of the Maine legislature’s Joint Resolution can be found at:    http://www.mainelegislature.org/legis/bills/bills_124th/billtexts/HP100401.asp

Submitted By The Associated Press
on Wednesday, Apr. 8 at 3:13 pm
AUGUSTA  –  Maine  lawmakers have passed a resolution calling on President Obama and Congress to establish a single-payer health system that covers everyone. The Senate passed the nonbinding resolution by a 20-15 vote on Wednesday, a day after the House did the same by a 91-52 vote.
The resolution cites the high costs of the present system and says managed care, health maintenance organizations and other reforms have failed to contain health costs. The resolution was passed months after a poll of nearly 600 Maine physicians showed a majority in favor of a single payer or “Medicare for all” approach. The survey, conducted in November and December, showed 52 percent in favor and 48 percent against.